79 Rabbit Project.

[Big CADDY]

RIGHT CLICK and select "SAVE TAGET AS"

Rolling the car back on it's wheels. 6/11
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/...r.wmv

Over the summer (04) I posted an ad in the newspaper that I was looking for a rabbit for restoration. All I got were calls from people who had cheap Caddys. and Cabbys. Well, I sold my Caddy in the spring and need something to do with my time...... that is when I have time now that I have a 2 year old daughter... Well, that was the reason for selling the caddy in the first place, so she could have a place to sit in the car rather then in the bed of the caddy. So, we will be able to use the rabbit as a summer cruiser with the whole family minus the fish and ducks.

SO, I picked this Rabbit up from Seb down in Myerstown and he was nice enough to deliver it.

1979 Rabbit diesel with a sunroof.

The car is overall in very nice shape and needs only a few normal spots of attention. But, the car was painted before so it will be off to the media blasters once the gas tank is out... oh, sorry I mean diesel tank.

I have all of the panels completely done minus paint. They have been massaged with 3 or 4 coats of K36 and wet sanded between. They are not taking up space in my soon to be family room once I have more time...........

The tranny is a 2Y tranny from my 1989 Jetta GLI Helios edition that nearly exploaded. The main shaft bearing went south and sounded like a jet turbine on the highway. I picked up the exact same tranny (have to keep the helios original) and totally rebuilt it. all bearings, seals and bushings blaa blaa. Well, anyways, it's done all but the end cap and flanges.

SO, anyway, I will post the pics now an shut the hell up. I will get into the plans I have for the entire car down the road a bit. I'll be posting new updates in this post as I go.

Thanks all for your support

Oh, and I am doing everything myself..........Everything, so be patient.. I don't understand when I have a fresh keg of beer right in the garage that no one comes to help... oh well,

ANd. last but not least, I'll be setting up the web cam for certain nights so you can watch me get hammered and work on the car.

Day I got it home.

Starting work.

Fenders, doors, and rear hatch are done and ready for paint.

Pulled it in the garage to pull the motor.

Some Tranny Shots before and after.

Parts for the chroming shop or powder coater

Ugg, I love and hate this work.....

Doin this stuff on the side when I'm tired of the fumes
$50.oo dash and $9.oo cluster from europe. I'll keep my other goodies hidden until it's time

WEll, I'm tired of posting crap, so I'll get back to work and keep ya posted with some new pics. Gonna run for a grit.

Modified by Big CADDY at 4:14 PM 11-6-2008

[Nashty Rabbit]

big CADDY is the big DADDY

looks like your going to build another beauty my friend

take care,
nash

[ClintCart]

Yup nice work.

[Big CADDY]

Quote, originally posted by Nashty Rabbit »

big CADDY is the big DADDY looks like your going to build another beauty my friend take care, nash

Nash, I'm going all out on this one... This is my 3rd and probably my last rabbit/caddy project. Lets just say that I took advantage of TT's holiday sale

ANd the next posting I will show my secret weapon for full body resto ability that I made.

Thanks

[Vedubauman]

Quote, originally posted by Big CADDY »

And the next posting I will show my secret weapon for full body resto ability that I made. Thanks

I smell a rotisserie! I'm sure this new project of yours will be as equally impressive as your Caddy was. Can't wait to see it.

[MattRabbit]

Are you keeping it a diesel? If so, are you going with a NA or TD motor?

Nice job BTW!

-Matt

[SLYWABT]

looking good, i like how the tranny looks though...Keep it up..looking forward to seeing more progress........

YoYo

[Big CADDY]

Quote, originally posted by MattRabbit »

Are you keeping it a diesel? -Matt

No, diesel is getting chucked. it has a 8" crack in the back of the block. and the waterpump housing is snapped.

So, I have bigger plans for the motor.

[BoostedVeeDub]

Yeah! The caddy's getting a little sister, or brother...

The caddy's doing great, sent you an update IM Tom.

[Big CADDY]

All right. been a long time for an update. I finally got everything I needed to get the car bolted to the "tiptissorie". Everything went very smoothly tipping the car over. I will actually have a video up soon of us doing it once I figure out how to capture with Premiere pro. blaaa. anyways, Some good some bad with this project. I found that the rust free car I got was actually loaded with bondo.. which you will see in some of the pics. the entire drivers side rear fender was el'fakin bondo himself. in front of the sunroof was bondo... SO, the next step after finishing the bottom and getting it back down on it's wheels is to hack off the roof skin and replace it with a non sunroof version....

well, I'll save the roof **** for a later post
on with the pics.

Mounted to the tiptisorrie. bottom has been completely scraped of all undercoating and grease down to primer and metal.. ALL UNDERCOATING.. what a P I T A

Recoated the bottom with Gravatex.. it's a German high quality spray that you use a shutz gun to apply.. very easy. took about 5 minutes..

If these pics don't get you dizzier then a ho in a circle somthin, I don't know what would other then the smell of all the toxins I have ingested so far..
Rust.

SOme crackho didn't understand that 1'' is just too much bondo.

Dizzy yet.

Mmmm smooth.. soon to be painted.

Stuff to toss in the creek

Broken..

Fixed.. a little 3m seam sealer for protection before the gravetex.

No icing on this cake..

I know I know "why did ya paint the HB tubes".. well, you ever tried to remove them? Welded on..

ahhh, floating car. engine bay is about clean.. gonna start welding there this week....

Tiptissorie in action. This will be for sale in the near future. I don't want it laying around or it's goin in the creek.

Like I said before... I think I did.. I did video the tipping of the car and will have it posted soon.

[j a y]

looks like you've made some decent progress!!!

very clean...

how are you going to finish the underneath?

i can't believe all of the people that are doing full blown rabbits.. very nice to see!!

[GTiRacer53]

The car looks awesome already! Is that a new tranny, or did you strip/refinish the old one (and if the latter, HOW?!?)

[VwGTIdp]

wow that looks really good...its gonna be one sweeet car when its done good job, but what do you mean by the "creek"? lol... when you have stuff you dont like the creek deals with it? hahah...jk but yeah i can tell its gonna be very, very nice good job

[vwfan240]

nice job with the rabbit....i have a question for that rotisserie is some way for noob to make one cuz i really need to do underbody work

[tallpaul]

Quote, originally posted by GTiRacer53 »

The car looks awesome already! Is that a new tranny, or did you strip/refinish the old one (and if the latter, HOW?!?)

i would like to know how you did it too. the car is looking great btw .

[chopWet]

man I wish I worked that fast on my car. Great work so far keep it up!!

[Big CADDY]

Quote, originally posted by GTiRacer53 »

The car looks awesome already! Is that a new tranny, or did you strip/refinish the old one (and if the latter, HOW?!?)

Well, the tranny is one from my 89 helios jetta. I tore the entire tranny apart to clean it. about 2 gallons of simple green and a tooth brush. also a little sandblasting. then I used alumablast paint from eastwood.com to give it color. then topped it off with some spray clear coat.

luckly I found a tranny from a helios to put in my helios to keep it all original.

fun stuff. I have only one part that is greasy to clean yet. the steering rack. yeahhhh..

more pics coming soon. oh, the gas grill was used to remove inner bearings in the tranny, so a lot of the grease was cooked off.

[Big CADDY]

Quote, originally posted by j a y »

how are you going to finish the underneith

Well, I used the gravatex on the bottom. it comes in different colors. I plan to base my color choice over it then a layer or two of PPG concept clear.

[Big CADDY]

Quote, originally posted by chopWet »

man I wish I worked that fast on my car. Great work so far keep it up!!

hah, this thing would be done if I didn't have a 2 year old. only time I get to work on it is when she is asleep. But, that doesn't help because I have to run the loudass air compressor which is right under he bedroom. I need a baby sitter for about 3 weeks.

Oh, and when I say I chuck stuff in the creek, I don't really mean it, but it would be funny to see the farmer try to drag his farm equipment over an engine block and a bunch of old suspension. friggin guy pisses me off. once a year he has to drive across my lawn to wash his equipment off in the creek.


Modified by Big CADDY at 9:02 AM 3-29-2005

[rippinGTI]

Big Caddy,

Great work on the wabbit!

Question: What did you use to strip the undercoating (please, please do not say heat gun and putty knife...)? I am going to be putting my Ur-Quattro on a rotisserie so that I can strip the bottom, and was hoping there is a good chemical stripper that can eat thu the undercoat. TIA,

- Marc

[Big CADDY]

well, I hate to say it, but a heat gun and a sharp chisel is what I used. It worked great to get the blunt of it off. I then got a wire brush for my drill. that finished the job.

have fun. I didn't . nahh, it's not that bad.

[SYNYSTAGLX]

that rotisserie looks stong enough to turn the car with everything in it... Cant wait to see your finished product!!!

[rippinGTI]

Quote, originally posted by Big CADDY »

well, I hate to say it, but a heat gun and a sharp chisel is what I used. It worked great to get the blunt of it off. I then got a wire brush for my drill. that finished the job. have fun. I didn't . nahh, it's not that bad.

I was afraid of that

Thanks Big Caddy!

[Big CADDY]

UPDATE WITH A VIDEO.............. finally.

[truckito]

awesome video big caddy!! project looks great

[Wilbur the pig]

Wild.

[vdubspeed]

great video...

"you're taking that corner like you're on rails"

love the tiptissorie

[Big CADDY]

New Updates. Finished the bottom and engine bay. PPG Base and clear were added. I have done everything so far myself except for some undercoating removal which I left up to my drunk buddies.

[audi80Quattro]

Hott

[Planned Obsolescence]

I wish i had friends as drunk as yours.

[Jeramiah]

That is PIMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! very nice work there buddy I congratulate you ! stay motivated and get er done.Don't be like me

[Big CADDY]

Don't worry. My wife is breathin down my neck to get her Jetta back indoors.

[Maceman]

this whole project is frickin' amazing

[83RabGTI]

Love the red man, really nice job on the car as well. If i had a place to keep my car indoors to work on it I would love to have something like your "tiptisorrie" Great idea!

[Big CADDY]

My next task is to wet sand and buff the engine bay.. uggg.. I will start it once I'm done with this post.

The next step is to paper and tape the entire bottom along with wheel wells and all suspension parts as they are reinstalled to protect them from overspray and dust during the restoration of the top.

I will also be replacing the entire roof skin from the wipers to the hatch with a straight one from a non sunroof car... So much for a rust and dent free car.. I'll bring my magnet next time I buy a car.